Two Proud!

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Planet Goodaboom, Monday 26th March 2007

We were back working the Street yesterday, but to be honest, we totally missed the time table: we started at 14h instead of 11h! I just felt lazy, somehow, something which doesn´t occur very often, and I couldn´t really convince myself to face that kind of work. And furthermore, we didn´t even realise that they had changed the time in the night, so to add insult to injury it was also one hour later! Some German man, who had been in the Street Gallery early in the morning, came back in the afternoon and mentioned to me, that they changed the time, pointing at his watch in a comically impatient fashion. I guess he hadn´t noticed that I was not one but 3 hours too late!
By the way: I hadn´t even noticed that I still had my painting trousers on, which actually look like one of my wilder creations. The same guy called me and said:
"What is the price of this painting, Miki?"
I was surprised.
"How do you know my name?"
Well, he just smiled, pointed to the signature on the painting he was just holding in his hands, and to my trousers....
Indeed, it couldn´t be more obvious! I realised then just what I was wearing.

It was very windy and cold by the sea yesterday, and we couldn´t set up the easels. Never mind, I put the biggest paintings on the ground and the ingenious Kevin created very sophisticated, anti-wind devices -gigantic plastic clips to hold some of tiny frameless paintings in their display rack, which was itself anchored to the table with even BIGGER clips! The paintings almost disappeared within this mighty construction! But well, he was very proud of himself, this the most important thing, I guess...
Due to the weather, there were not many people walking around, but I still got a lot of attention and compliments, well, my paintings did!. We also had some very funny entertainment by a spanish saint woman called "Puri", a short name for "Purification". Kevin will tell you the story, I would miss out too many words to transmit the glory of the situation...

I -unfortunately- sold one of my favourite sketches, and to tell the truth, I haven´t many. A fast sketch of a village in the "Ribeira del Duero", a famous wine region north of Madrid. I was there two years ago, on a painting trip. Sold to a Spanish Art collector from Madrid, who worked in the past in El Prado.
I must say: I am quite proud!

So plenty of pride all round, for construction, and sales! (Despite, I´m sure, Saint Puri´s admonition that Pride is one of the 7 deadly sins....we´re working on the others!)

A Baby in a Rose

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Planet Goodaboom, Tuesday 6th March 2007


I told you it was a successful day 2 days ago in the Street Gallery...but how successful, I didn´t even know myself at that moment! One of the clients who already bought a painting from me came today to my Gallery and bought a further three and a CD from Kevin (see his entry in his diary). It was wonderful to see how they hardly could decide which one they should buy, they loved so many... what a nice compliment for me! Above all because these people were the same who bought my miniature painting 2 weeks ago, saying that they have no place on their walls. They haven´t indeed, but they have children who still have space... I hope they will like the paintings their parents bought for them today!

I wanted above all to tell you about the old Spanish lady who bought a painting from me on Sunday. She is one of these women living in the countryside, and who normally never leave their villages in their lifetime. But some travel companies here organise cheap week-end trips to the coast for these old Spanish people and for most it is their first trip away. They accomodate them in some of the nice hotels by the beach –one of them, Kactus Hotel, is right at the corner of the Street Gallery- and organise there on the Sunday afternoon big sales of things like oriental carpets or modern kitchen appliances. These poor people get the trip cheap, but they then spend such a fortune buying all these extras! Anyway.. my old lady looked at the paintings and came to me, asking:
„Are these paintings signed by any well-known painter?“
I didn´t really understand what she meant. So I said:
„well, yes, they are all signed... the paintings are from me!“
„Yes, I can see they are signed! But I know exactly what I want!“
She sounded a little bit stressed... but whatever she wanted, and however she expressed it, I kept smiling and told her, that I am famous in the area. She was quite happy with that answer and asked me for the price.
„Which one?“
I asked.
She didn´t know. She just wanted a painting from a famous painter, I guess. As I told her the price of various ones, she looked very sad.
„Look, I have already spent too much money on the carpets... I have almost nothing left... and my husband loves paintings so much! It is for him...“
Finally she found a painting which she really loved. It was inspired by a photo from Anne Geddes, featuring a baby in a rose. In fact it was not for sale, it was just to give people ideas for personalised paintings.
But my old lady insisted so much that I gave her a price. Of course it was much too expensive, and normally I don´t let people negociate with me. But I felt some kind of sympathy for this woman. I never had that before but, after 4 rounds, and her leaving and returning each time, finally even showing me the bill for the carpets she had just bought, she succeeded in getting the painting from me for less than half of the price I had first said!
I wonder if her husband will really appreciate it, when she comes back home after having spent so much money. But she was very happy, and wanted me to make a photo of her, me and the baby in the Rose!

Art and Ice Cream

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Planet Goodaboom, Monday 5th March 2007


Wonderful day again for the Street Gallery yesterday. I guess a thousand people must have stopped to look at my paintings and I ask you: where else, if you are not a really famous painter, would you get so many visitors in one day to your exhibition? Whatever one still may think about my choice to „work the street“: it is obviously the best place to touch my clients! (Kevin: „you are such a naughty girl, Miki!“)

And as you see: even the youngest were interested in my art! That one –a lively work of art himself!, with even the colour of the ice cream matching the colour of the sweatshirt!- had really to be dragged away by his parents from my paintings, he wanted to stay there! I guess the parents were scared the ice cream would land on the paintings, and indeed I was scared too although, honestly, I think it would have been funny, somehow, to see the reaction of the parents and if they would offer to buy the painting...
It reminds me, many years ago, I was painting a watercolour landscape in nature, sitting on the ground, in Provence. Suddenly I saw an enormous tongue licking my painting and the whole landscape was transformed into a dog´s breakfast, quite literally! I glanced back and saw behind me a gigantic Saint Bernard, whose tongue, having finished with my painting, moved on to my face for dessert... By the way: the dog´s owner did not propose to pay for the painting, but thankfully kept HIS tongue in his mouth!

I ask you again: have you seen many times such small children in a normal exhibition? This only happens in the street. I am fascinated how such small children are really interested in paintings... and many times it happens that they start explaining the paintings to their parents! This was not the case with that one, as he cannot speak yet!

The problem with my young admirers is that they don´t buy my paintings. They prefer to spend their money on ice cream, I guess, and I must confess, in their place, I would do the same!!!!!!!

Nevertherless it was a very successful day yesterday in the older age category. I´ll tell you next time... if I can find the time to leave all my kiddies for a while!

Smaller than the bank note!

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Planet Goodaboom, Wednesday 28th February 2007


I was back in the Street Gallery last Sunday, after 4 weeks pause forced by the police and even more by the weather. And as I told: it was a successful day!
It seems that people had missed me and were happy to see me again there with all my paintings.
If I were arrogant I would dare to say:
„I bring the colour to that town!“


I sold that painting, called by Kevin „The Solitary Pine“. By the way, since I have know him, he is the one who gives titles to my paintings! This is the reason why they suddenly all have English titles...I hate to do it myself, perhaps because I hate to look at my paintings when they are finished: past is past!

This was the first one of a large series of miniatures I painted last year. My wise father had told me to do it, suggesting that many of my clients are older people who already have a long life behind them and have filled their house with a lot of stuff, and surely haven´t much place for a new picture on their wall!
How right he was! Many clients told me the same already. And this was exactly the point with my old Norwegian lady on Sunday. She loved my art, and wanted one at any cost, but had no place on her walls. She chose the smallest one!
Lucky for her, I would say, as the smallest also happens to be one of my favourite landscape paintings.
It was a very strange feeling, at the end, as she paid me: the note was bigger than the painting! I can tell you: this is an immense feeling of happiness, because it demonstrates so obviously that for some people, art is more important than money!

So... the solitary pine will soon hang on Norwegian walls. There are already many paintings from me decorating Norwegian walls, as these folk are my best clients. Norwegian love art, and love it with a natural simplicity. When they see a painting which they like, they don´t think twice: they just buy it, wherever it is, and without even asking who painted it.
Nice!

The Last of the Mohicans

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Planet Goodaboom, Monday 26th February 2007

Yesterday, after 4 or 5 weeks pause, I exhibited again in the Street Gallery. Against my expectations based on former experiences with the local authorities, one week after my request for renewal of permission I received an official letter from the town hall, saying that they agree. Hurrah! It feels as though I have won a war!

I thought I had no chance, because in the meanwhile I am the only painter left exhibiting there, you might say: the last of the Mohicans.
Did I already tell you the story of the Street Gallery?
It started 3 years ago, from a collective painting exhibition organised by the local Lions Club. I met there a Spanish painter, Concha. We were both exasperated by the lack of exhibiting possibilities in our area, and had the idea to try to make the only pedestrian street of the city OURS, at least on Sundays, organising an exhibition of paintings from international painters there. It took three months till we got the permission – a perfect example of the „mañana“ principle-, and we only triumphed because Concha & me are the kind of people who take it to the wire until we get what we want! We were sent backwards and forwards through all the departments here, the culture centre, town hall, police, traffic, economy, simply because nobody really wanted to make the decison. It even became a political matter! But finally we got what we wanted!

Well... we were 7 at the beginning... 4 Spaniards, 1 German, 1 Swedish and the French Miki. Unfortunately it is very hard to work the street, and we had to face all kind of calamities like sudden storms, electrical shorts , sewage smells from the overworked drainage system, Dogs fouling path AND paintings! etc. But the worst were the critics: many people could not understand that professional painters like ourselves could „demean“ themselves by exhibiting their paintings in the street, and most of the time under very unfavourable conditions. They thought the street was the wrong „frame“ for our paintings, that it would totally diminish their value. So one after the other my painting companions deserted the Street Gallery. Just Concha and me were still there last Summer. Unfortunately, in the autumn, she gave up, too. I then wanted to stop myself because I found it too hard to stay there alone, and anyway it didn’t correspond at all to the original idea of having an international gathering of painters working in different styles and techniques. But in the last 3 years the Street Gallery had become quite well known in the area, people really enjoyed it, and they tried to convince me to go on. But it is only thanks to Kevin, who motivated and helped me so much all the time, that I am still there... and very happy about it!
As hard as it is, it is really the best way to reach the maximum number of people with my art, people coming from many different countries and social backgrounds and occupations. It is also the best place to observe the public reaction to my work.
In the meantime people no longer think it is a shame to exhibit in the street. I like to think of it as striking a blow against the collective prejudices...

And as if the gods wanted to reward us: it was a very successful day yesterday, I´ll tell you about it next time.
And the curtain fell on the Street Gallery with an astonishing sunset...

The Price of a Father´s Hand

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Street Gallery, Sunday 31st december 2006


Always a great feeling to see a man kneeling in front my art! I don´t know why, but it often happens that people take some strange positions in front of my paintings... I imagine that the most pragmatic amongst you would say:

You might be right, but often I have the feeling that people are trying to enter the pictures.
„it´s just because your pictures are tiny and laying on the ground!“

An Italian woman told me one day:
„Your paintings... they´re not quite reality... more like a dream... but a dream which one wants to enter, to go deeper and deeper inside! And at the end it is very hard to leave, it´s like a spell!“
It was one of the most beautiful compliments I have ever received! Anyway... I wonder above all how elastic old people still can be when they want to!

It was busy today in the Street Gallery, I would say: vibrating! Before we set up, I was not quite sure, it made sense to be there, thinking the people had better things to do on New Year´s Eve than to admire my paintings. I was wrong. I got a great deal of attention, many compliments and as a result, some sales are expected this week in the Studio.. .
My first wishes for the New Year came from a german painter. He said, that my prices are much too low, adding that his own prices are higher, but well, in Germany... We are in Spain here, and some articles are still expected to be cheap. Paintings for example. But perhaps only because there is much competition, as I mentioned before... (read december 2006, There are 50 ways to leave your Lover). And also because of these studios scattered around Spain, where hundreds of east european painters are working on a production line for the big chain store „El Corte Ingles“, producing 3000 times the same original painting for 30€...

There were a couple of interesting moments in the Street Gallery, Kevin talks about some of them in his diary today, but the most touching one for me was created by a spanish woman. She looked intensely at my new picture from the series „Hands“ and spoke to her friend about it, It is always a delicate situation when people are commenting on my work in private. Most of the time I am not supposed to understand them as they all speak in different languages, but unfortunately, I myself speak and understand most of them. Anyway whilst I am trying to respect the intimacy of their thoughts, guiding my ears to the „ bbzzzes“ of the wind or the „rrrssshhhes“ of the sea, I am only human and human it is to listen when some stranger is speaking about you!
I heard the woman say to her friend:
„Well, I go to the artist now... I must always speak to the author of what I admire... see if I can speak to this girl...“
and she marched bravely towards me. En passant: thankyou for „the girl“, senora!
As the woman realised that I understood spanish very well, I noticed a certain concern... but well, her conscience was clear, all I´d heard from her had been very positive.
She asked me to come with her to the hands, and remarked:
„It´s fantastic what you have done here... painters normally paint mothers with babies, and especially mothers´hands... you have painted the hand of a father... it´s amazing how you could evoke what a father IS, only showing his hand!“
I told her that 2 weeks ago I had sold the hand of a grandfather holding the hand of his grandson... A great idea, she said.
And of course she then asked the price of the hand. As I told her, she was very shocked and the magic was gone: so much for the idea that I am too cheap!!!!

There are 50 ways to leave your Lover...

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Street Gallery, Sunday 17th december 2006


I have thought a lot, about which kind of things concerning my life on this earth may interest you. I came to the conclusion that I should mainly tell you about my life as a painter, which of course has become so important to me.

If you become addicted to Goodaboom -.and naturally, we expect it! -, you will see that I exhibit every Sunday on a pedestrian street in Albir. Of course only if „el tiempo no lo impide“, if the weather doesn´t impede it, as it´s been written for generations on the famous posters announcing the bullfights.
Many interesting things happen there, when I am “working the street“.
Last Sunday for example... I had a prominent visitor! Well, I had no idea that he was such a celebrity, but a man who accompanied him told me that he was a famous painter. The famous guy in fact handed me a publicity postcard of his website

As the 3 men in coats arrived, I was not present. I had to escape to my niece´s flat to satisfy a call of nature, as my usual street toilet was on that day out of commission: the door had disappeared, and it is was full of caca and the remnants of technicolor yawns! This, by the way, is one of the inconveniences of this avant garde gallery: the toilet is on the beach and principally used at night by the local heavy drinkers... Please take a moment to pity me!
Anyway,... I had left Kevin by the exhibition with instructions to sell as many paintings as possible. As I came back I found him in deep conversation with a man. From a distance I saw that the man was holding something in his hands, and looking at it with great interest. I thought it was one of my small paintings and Kevin had indeed achieved a sale. But as I came nearer I saw that he was looking at one of our „Brush with Poetry „ CDs“(by the way, have a look into this page...!).
„Hello!“
I said, without paying more attention to them. I am not really a social type, and I prefer to let Kevin entertain our visitors, he masters that task fantastically, and anyway, he is my agent now!
But soon the guy lost his interest in the CD and came to me.
„Are you the painter?“
„Yes...“
„You painted all these paintings?“
I am used to this question, so I have a ready made answer which normally invokes great admiration. I said:
„Yes!!!!“
But this time nothing of the kind happened. The man looked at me intensely, insistently, as if he wanted to tell me something vital without using words. I held his stare, trying to look comprehending, but in fact without any idea as to what the silence meant.
„But there are almost 50 paintings?“
He framed this as a question. I thought, what a strange thing to say, when I am supposed to have been a painter for many years....
„Well, much more I guess! But it is normal, isn´t it? I am a painter!“
He said nothing, just continued to stare at me.

In the meantime the two other men had joined us. The guy told me, that one of them was the scupltor who made the big steel anchor on the promenade, and the other one... well, sorry, I don´t remember what he was, but yes, I remember he was a funny guy with crazy hair and a gypsy look... he could have been one of the Gipsy Kings!
We all began some small talk, in which he asked me where I was coming from. He told me that he was himself living in Paris

„And what is your profession?“
he suddenly asked. I started to feel a little bit upset and to think. this man was trying to convince me, that I was not a painter.
„I am a painter, as you can see....!“
„But you live from it?“
He was still staring at me, this time as though he wanted to convince me I was not living at all!
„Yes...“
He looked quite surprised, but without any hesitation he offered his hand.
„Congratulations, I know how hard it is! I am a painter“
„Well, the truth is, that the portraits help a lot!“
Yes, it is hard to live from painting, and above all in such a place as Albir, where 80% of the population are pensioniers and 50% of them are painters, providing the whole family and friends with decoration for their new walls. Luckily not many of them are making portraits... of course they try, and I even spent a lot of time giving them portrait classes, but they rapidly give up: portraiting is very frustrating, and there is no way to hide a mistake in them...
„So, you are a painter too?“
Instead of answering he searched for a while in his bag. It was at that moment that the Gipsy King told me:
„Oh yes... he is a very famous painter!“
I didn´t really pay much attention to it. I had somehow the feeling that these two guys were kidding me. Then he handled me the postcard. I had a quick look at the painting „Paz en rojo“, and thought that the red-bearded green Jesus within it was also asking me: „Are you a painter?“

Just before they went away, the famous painter stared intently at me again and said:
„Miki, please....“
„Yes?“
„Please... in painting... make series! Don´t be dispersed!“
There were some seconds of silence. I was not prepared for this attack. Then I laughed and just answered:
„That´s me...“

I know that one might think „I am dispersed“.
Perhaps i am. But the fact is, I cannot always paint the same stuff, in the same colours and in the same style. I get bored very rapidly, I need perpetual change. I have no pretention to be called an artist if this demands one to stay blocked in a certain working style. I just want to paint, whatever and however I LOVE.

Before they left they admired the tiger-striped wooden drain cover that Kevin had made to prevent the bad smell coming as a result of the torrential rain two weeks ago. The painter said.
„THIS is really a work of Art!“

I thought: what an indirect compliment to MY work!

Anyway: it´s clear now what he meant before with the 50 paintings... a delicate way to tell me:

„There are 50 ways to leave your lover!“



Epilogue:

I just had a look on his site. Our visitor really IS a famous painter.
I will send him a christmas mail, so that we all may celebrate the birthday of the red-bearded green Jesus!